Species 24 (1 in the flora): tropical and subtropical regions, North America, Mexico, West Indies, Central America, South America.

Originally the name was spelled as “Prescotia.” Since then and until recently, most authors, with the exception of W. Voth (1976) and J. D. Ackerman (1989), spelled it with two ts. “Prescotia” should be treated as an orthographic error (J. D. Ackerman 1995), and the spelling with two ts should prevail